End of an era at Team Hope

The highly successful harness racing team of GP and Mrs N M Hope is officially disbanding.

From next Tuesday (April 1), Greg will remain the “frontman” but wife Nina, the country’s most successful female trainer, will be stepping away.

In a changing of the guard Ben Hope’s got himself a promotion and will go into partnership with his father.

“Mum will be off the papers but she’s been a huge part of what we do and will continue to be,” says Ben, “we couldn’t do it without her.”

Earlier this month Nina Hope set a new record for wins by a female trainer when she had her 899th winner, eclipsing the old mark set by Natalie Rasmussen, in partnership with Mark Purdon. She then became the first to 900 as well – her current total stands at 901.

At the time she described her 899th win as “a pretty cool moment”.

“It’s very much a team thing – I haven’t done this on my own.”

So why the change?

“It was a case of ‘when and not if’ and now the time is right,” says 25-year-old Ben.

“Dad got to 1000 training wins not that long ago and Mum went past 900 and I think to be honest they were waiting for those milestones before they switched it to me and Dad.”

Greg Hope has 1079 wins in total. Greg and Nina’s best season was in 2017 when they had 84 wins with a team spearheaded by the likes of Enghien and AG’s White Socks.

Ben in contrast is a novice with just 15 training successes on his own account to go with the 259 he’s had as a driver.

“I love driving and I’ll carry on driving but the training will come first.”

So how will the new partnership work?

“My small team of horses will go into the partnership, we are just joining up.”

“Dad’s been doing this a long time and a lot longer than me – he’ll still be the frontman!”

The new father-son arrangement will debut at Timaru next Wednesday and then all eyes will be on the Night of Champions at Cambridge where their stable star Muscle Mountain will take on Australasia’s best including Bet N Win, Oscar Bonavena and The Locomotive in the $600,000 TAB Trot.

by Dave Di Somma, for Harness News Desk